


Revival at Sea

by TR33G1RL



Category: One Piece
Genre: Character Analysis, Character Study, Healing, Post Wano, SMILE fruits
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:41:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27929959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TR33G1RL/pseuds/TR33G1RL
Summary: Killer is recovering on the Polar Tang because of everything that happened in Wano. He finds that being underwater is a fantastic place to heal, and the Heart Crew are excellent healers.
Relationships: Killer & Heart Pirates
Comments: 8
Kudos: 44





	Revival at Sea

Under the water's surface, swallowed up by the chilling darkness of its depths, is a wonderful place to begin welding the shattered metal shards of one's soul back together, Killer finds. The low sound of the Heart Pirates' submarine creaking under the ocean’s pressure used to set Killer on edge. He remembers Kidd telling him that he felt the same way the first night they left Wano. The  _ Victoria Punk _ had been turned into ammunition for Kidd to use in their battles, each piece taken from the ship with a wince as they fought with each metal tooth and rusted nail for their freedom. 

After the battle had been won, the Kidd Pirates took a moment of silence to thank what was left of their beloved ship, bowing their heads in a quiet goodbye before following Law onto his submarine. The Surgeon of Death had offered them a free ride - “One ride, Eustass-ya, and it’ll be a one way trip. Don’t expect anything more out of me.” - to any one destination of their choice. Kidd had scoffed and told him that he wouldn’t even  _ accept _ more than one ride from Law, and that Kidd would tell him where he wanted to go once they got on the  _ Polar Tang _ . However it was pretty obvious with the way that Kidd, Killer, and Law had to lean on each other for balance to get to the ship that none of them were in any position to fight. Least of all in any position to fight off the rest of the Heart Pirates, a crew of surgeons and medical professionals of ungodly skill that also each know a specialized form of combat and have a signature form of torture.

It’s safe to say that any plans that Kidd and Killer had to escape the Heart Pirate’s medical attention were forgotten at the flash of many sharp smiles and poised scalpels. 

Killer’s surgery took the longest of any of the other pirate’s, his SMILE fruit promising many complications; each promise was overwhelmingly correct. The hardest part of his operation - as told to him by Law's first mate, the human/fighting-fishman hybrid named Penguin who came in to change Killer’s gauze and dressings every other hour - was that something about the way the chemicals in the SMILE had changed certain parts of his body's natural chemistry had made it so that his metabolism and drug tolerance were much higher than they were previously. Because of that and the fact that the surgery that they had needed to perform on Killer - the Heart Pirate's chef, another another human/fighting-fishman hybrid named Shachi, said as he set a tray of food on the bedside table next to Killer’s cot - they had pumped half their supply of anesthetic drugs into him just to keep him under during the surgery.

Even now, the rotation of Heart Pirates through his room is more dense than it is with any other patients. They have to come in frequently to change his medicine, to give him more food, to make sure his bones - which are healing abnormally fast - are setting properly. Already, they’ve had to re-break his left arm twice, along with one of his legs. Some of his ribs needed the same type of procedure, and after that everyone involved decided that Killer would be monitored much more closely so they could catch any incorrect healings before they were too far along. "Jeez, your SMILE fruit…" Ikkaku, one of Law's crew members and a… Killer forgot the name for it, but someone whose job is to look at chemicals and DNA and all the small stuff, sighed as she looked at some of his blood samples under a microscope in the Polar Tang's laboratory. "It's like they were trying to recreate the Tori Tori no Mi: Phoenix Model, but only got the healing part, and it only half works." When she had turned back to look at Killer, a curious tilt to her head, she asked, "You haven't grown wings or burst into blue flames, right?" Killer, his throat still recovering from the surgery that the Heart Crew had to perform on his lower face and throat, had only returned her gaze with a deadpan stare. Ikkaku had let out a laugh at his response. "Yeah, I didn't think so."

  
  
  


Killer is incredibly relieved that none of the Heart Pirates pressed the issue further and instead are letting him heal before testing for any more effects the SMILE has had on him. Then again, Killer has known a good amount of doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals in his life, and the best of them put health before all else. The Heart Pirates, Killer will gladly say, are the best of the best, and they don’t deviate from this rule.

Letting his eyes flutter close, Killer leans back into the pillows of his mattress. Behind him, he can hear the way that water caresses and rubs against the Polar Tang, the sound accompanied by low whale calls and the familiar creak of metal. Killer’s heartbeat and breathing, his monitors and machines, become background noise as Killer begins to drift off into sleep.

However, right before the gentle hold of unconsciousness can cradle his head in their lap, the sound of a door creaking open causes Killer to peek one eye open to see who has come in his room. 

A large, white mink closes the door behind him, shuffling up to Killer’s bed with a change of Killer’s medication. “D-Did I wake you, Killer? Sorry!” Bepo exclaims in a voice just a bit too loud as his ears twitch in apology. “I just need to put more medicine into your I.V.! I-I promise I’ll-!”

“Bepo,” Killer interrupts with a gravelly, sleep-rough voice. “It’s fine. Do you mind if I fall asleep right now, or do you need me awake?” 

Shaking his head, Bepo sets to work swapping out one bag of medicine for another as he says, “No, you can fall asleep if you need to. Sorry for-”

Killer feels an amused but tired smile twitch at the corners of his mouth. “Bepo, really, it’s fine. I’m gonna go to sleep now.”

“Okay, Killer! Sleep well!”

“I will. Thank you, Bepo.”


End file.
